Question

How I can make Student class serializable? I’m reading this article but I do not know what is the right approach if I would implement it in the below scenario.

public class Student
{
    private string _studentNumber;
    private string _lastName;
    private string _firtName;
    private List<Subject> _subjects;

    public Student() { }

    public string StudentNumber
    {
        get { return _studentNumber; }
        set { _studentNumber = value; }
    }

    public string LastName
    {
        get { return _lastName; }
        set { _lastName = value; }
    }

    public string FirstName
    {
        get { return _firtName; }
        set { _firtName = value; }
    }

    public List<Subject> Subjects
    {
        get { return _subjects; }
        set { _subjects = value; }
    }
}

public class Subject
{
    private string _subjectCode;
    private string _subjectName;

    public Subject() { }

    public string SubjectCode
    {
        get { return _subjectCode; }
        set { _subjectCode = value; }
    }

    public string SubjectName
    {
        get { return _subjectName; }
        set { _subjectName = value; }
    }
}

Answer 1

For BinaryFormatter, just add [Serializable] before the public class ....

For XmlSerializer, nothing; that should work fine assuming you want elements

For DataContractSerializer (a 3.0 class, strictly speaking), add [DataContract] to the class, and [DataMember] to the properties

For protobuf-net, you can use the DataContractSerializer attributes as long as each [DataMember] specifies a unique Order=, or you can use [ProtoContract] on the class, and [ProtoMember(n)] on each property, for unique n.

For JavaScriptSerializer (technically 3.5), nothing – it should work

For Json.NET, nothing – it should work

Other options would include implementing ISerializable or IXmlSerializable, but frankly: you don’t need that.